1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vacuum pick-up devices, and more particularly to vacuum attachments useful in picking up, retaining and thereafter collecting for re-use or disposal lightweight packing particulates.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Those engaged in the manufacture and then the shipment of goods are always concerned over any damage that may be sustained during transport and various mechanisms and techniques have been devised to insulate the shipped article from impact damage. Where the article is produced in large numbers that are then widely distributed, and particularly where the shape of the article is well defined, the cost of specialized packaging may be distributes over its large shipping volumes and conformingly shaped plastic foam structures are frequently utilized to fix the article in its packaging and/or its shipping container. Articles that are replicated in lower numbers and/or are characterized by irregular shapes, however, are generally shipped without any specifically shaped impact protection and are buried instead within large quantities of plastic foam particulates sometimes referred to as ‘packing pop-corn’.
While the use in shipping of these lightweight packing particulates has gained wide acceptance, the light weight and dielectric material structure of the individual particulate kernels has rendered them susceptible to attraction and dispersal by static charge and also to unwanted distribution by air currents because of their high surface-to-volume ratios and the handling thereof is therefore a bothersome, particularly to those concerned over conservation and therefore our environment. Simply, the generalized nature of this particulate matter strongly suggests its re-use, or at least the recycling thereof, and for these reasons various collection techniques and mechanisms have been proposed in the past that in one way or another seek to accommodate these objectives.
Some examples of the solutions proposed in the prior art that are devoted to this problem can be found in the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 6,973,944 to Anderson et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,569 to Brandenburg et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,741,093 to Schonberg et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,819 to Shade; U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,860 to Stockdale et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,623 to Kihlstrom, and others. Each of the foregoing, while suitable for the purposes intended, entails devices and processes designed for large scale commercial use which include substantially sized packing particulate containers from where the particulates are dispensed, or into which they are collected, and are therefore clearly not conformed for the occasional household use.
Those devices that are characterized by their small size, simplicity and portability are mostly found in the analogous art related to insect capture and collection, as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 4,780,986 to Broomfield et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,451 to Jarecki; U.S. Pat. No. 4,175,352 to Catlett; and others. While again suitable for the purposes intended, each of these include a removable collection bed on which the ingested matter is collected along with some form of a capturing cover. Of course, the added complexity of a removable screen on which the insect or debris is collected, together with some form of closure to prevent their escape, are each a constraint on the collection task, thus adding cost and structural complexity.
These same structural constraints have also appeared in those prior art examples that have focused on a fully portable mechanism for collecting packing particulates, as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,287 to Shade; U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,775 to Frazier; and others. While once again suitable for the purposes intended this added structure limits the form of the device to a self-powered device and not as a simple and inexpensive attachment for a household vacuum.
The structural complexity associated with retaining closures that capture the particulates that have been collected thus complicates the function of the device and a collection assembly conformed for a simple attachment to a portable vacuum that captures the particulates collected therein is therefore extensively desired and it is one such assembly that is disclosed herein.